MISSEL THRUSH. 167 



The Missel-bird feeds on the berries of the mountain ash, 

 the service tree, the juniper, the yew, holly, and ivy, hips 

 and haws, grain and seeds of various kinds, caterpillars, 

 beetles, and other insects, worms and snails. In hard weather, 

 when food is scarce, it will drive away other Thrushes and 

 Blackbirds from the trees where it is feeding. In gardens it 

 commits some damage among the fruit; nay, it has been 

 abundantly ascertained that it will, at all events when it has 

 young, destroy other small birds. One has been seen flying 

 off with a young Hedge-Sparrow in its bill, closely pursued 

 by the bereaved parent; and another has been detected in the 

 very act of killing a young Thrush in facfc, this carnivorous 

 propensity is quite common to it; the eggs of other birds 

 therefore also, as may be supposed, it likewise makes a practice 

 of abstracting. 



W. F. W. Bird, Esq. relates in 'The Naturalist,' volume ii, 

 page 216, that one was caught in a gamekeeper's trap, which 

 had been baited with the egg of a small bird. The late 

 William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, says that Butcher Bird 

 is the term applied to it in the county of Donegal, in 

 Ireland. 



As a proof with regard to the present species also of the 

 good effected by the destruction of insects, the following 

 communication to Mr. Macgillivray, may be adduced three 

 young ones only had to be fed: 'At twenty minutes past 

 four o'clock they commenced the labours of the day. From 

 that time until five they fed their young only five times; 

 from five to six three times; from six to seven six times; 

 from seven to eight twelve times; from eight to nine six 

 times; from nine to ten four times; from ten to eleven five 

 times; from eleven to twelve four times; from twelve to one 

 three times; from one to two three times; from three to four 

 two times; from four to five two times; from five to six two 

 times; from six to seven five times; and from seven to eight 

 only once;' in all sixty-six times, each time bringing several 

 large worms and snails, and this for the smallest usual number 

 of young, and in addition to the food they must have taken 

 themselves. Before venturing to the nest they generally 

 alighted two or three times, remaining some seconds upon 

 each of them, and looking around with the greatest jealousy 

 and circumspection. 



The song of this bird, which is of rather an inferior 

 quality, is commenced, or rather carried on, in the earliest 



